Blight reduction efforts going strong in Rockford

Saturday

ROCKFORD — The neighborhood around Washington Park on the city's west side should see a wealth of green space in the next several years as dozens of dilapidated homes come down.

Winnebago County and nonprofit Comprehensive Community Solutions have partnered to reduce blight around the city with funding from the Illinois Housing Development Authority, or IHDA.

The state housing authority developed the blight reduction program in 2014 to give eligible communities a chance to remove unsightly and uninhabitable houses in order to boost community morale, create space for potential redevelopment and decrease dangerous conditions.

The state housing authority gave the county an $840,000 grant this cycle of the annual program. In 2015, the county got $350,000. The city of Rockford got more than $1 million for blight reduction.

Comprehensive Community Solutions, or CCS, has taken down seven houses so far and plans to complete a minimum of 27 more deconstructions or demolitions with the grant money.

If a house is safe to work in, the agency will deconstruct rather than demolish. They repurpose materials such as lumber, plumbing fixtures, windows and doors to sell at reuse store Salvage Too. Proceeds from the sales go back into the blight reduction program.

Organizations can only spend $35,000 per home, under the grant guidelines, but CCS has been able to come in under budget, said Kerry Knodle, executive director of the agency. More Rockford houses will most likely come down with the leftover funding.

"We haven’t been using the maximum funding. So we’re probably going to end up in round one with at least 15 houses,” he said. “And we have a minimum of 24 in round two and we’ll probably be closer to 30.”

The $35,000 is to cover all the costs associated with the deconstruction or demolition, including acquiring the property, permits, legal fees and greening of the lot. The vast majority of the properties are condemned, which means the county typically goes through the court process to acquire the properties and then transfer ownership to Knodle’s organization.

Dilapidated homes have a negative impact on public health and safety, which is why the program is so necessary, said Ryan Kerch, environmental health supervisor with Winnebago County Health Department.

“The most severe blighted properties, it’s an immediate safety risk,” he said. “They could have animals or people in them, whether those people are there just looking for somewhere to hang out or doing illegal activities.”

Unkempt lawns can also harbor wild animals. Empty, rundown homes drive down property values. Quality of life and neighborhood morale suffers when properties sit vacant for long periods, he added.

The city of Rockford plans to raze 100 homes this year, working in parallel to the county.

Rockford city officials are also completing work with national nonprofit group Center for Community Progress to develop an early warning system and find proactive ways to address blight problems before neighborhoods get dilapidated.

Todd Cagnoni, the city's director of community and economic development, said that some of the ideas — such as proactively addressing quality of life concerns — have already been put into action. That includes the recent partnership with the Zion West Neighborhood Association, which represents residents who live near the Ellis Heights neighborhood. The city now pays four residents to keep lawns mowed at abandoned properties.

“We just added another 20 or so lots (to their workload),” Cagnoni said. “So as they build capacity and become more efficient, we will be giving them more work.”

Work with the nonprofit will continue through the summer, and the city plans to put out a report that includes specific action plans, he added.

It’s likely the freed-up spaces will spur community development. One neighbor is already in the process of buying the neighboring lot, where a rundown house once stood, to use for a garden. That house on Nina Terrace was the first Comprehensive Community Solutions took down.

“We’ve also had interest expressed from some of the other neighbors of the properties we have taken down,” Knodle said. “We sell the lot for a nominal price and the money has to go back to the IHDA program.”

Brittany Keeperman: 815-987-1395: bkeeperman@rrstar.com: @BKeeperman

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